Natural Gas Pipeline SCADA

As the world’s energy dependency increases, so does it’s reliance on the transport of natural gas from source to consumer. Whether it’s upgrading substation instrumentation or installing fresh lines, natural gas movers rely on SCADA solutions to interpret crucial data, and to keep their company, employees, and the environment safe.

“Our D/3 based Pipeline Control System has performed flawlessly and NovaTech helped move our control center to another location two miles away, in less than 3 hours.”

– Gilles de Kok, Integrity Engineer, ZEBRA Gasnetwerk B.V.

The Solution

NovaTech engineers designed, developed, and commissioned sophisticated control strategies and powerful graphical interface components to facilitate safe and efficient control for each managed station. Rather than implementing an out-of-the-box solution, this tailored approach allowed operators drill down to the station level using TotalVision graphics, and access detailed displays for alarms, trends, and consumption data. Operators now have complete control of the system in a centralized control room, utilizing the D/3’s built-in visualization components, as well as on-the-go, armed with iPads linked to 3G service for making informed and accurate decisions in the field.

Example Software Screens

The D/3® Distributed Control System (DCS) is a leading edge process control system that includes a comprehensive suite of software applications, networks, and computing hardware. D/3 features system-wide redundancy and the ability to upgrade without stopping plant operations.

It is fair to say that without a fully functional distributed control system (DCS), a modern plant cannot operate safely and efficiently and in some cases, cannot operate at all. Therefore, it is vital to ensure the integrity of all DCSs and protect them from malicious attacks, accidental corruption, and data breaches that may jeopardize safety or production or may compromise the end user’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.

This paper describes the philosophy and guidelines for keeping your D/3® DCS secure from cyberattacks.

The NovaTech D/3® Process Control Module 5 Series (PCM5) represents a leap forward in the development, virtualization, and Cyber Security capabilities of the D/3 PCM family. The upcoming PCM5™ will deliver even higher levels of agility and performance to the DCS with the longest life cycle support and lowest total cost-of-ownership in the industry: the D/3.

D/3® Version 15 (D3v15) includes an array of valuable enhancements to the most adaptable and powerful DCS on the market. D3v15 delivers the highest lifetime value by preserving investments in applications, hardware, and I/O while incorporating the latest advancements.

As the issue becomes more and more dependent on human and machine integration, new technologies and implementation techniques like advanced procedural automation can be applied, which will greatly affect operational performance.

In 1999, NovaTech installed D/3® Version 9 at AbbVie’s North Chicago facility. Although the system was still running seventeen years later, it became increasingly difficult to maintain. The system was running on a VMS platform, which Corporate IT no longer wanted to support. With the backing from IT, engineering, and operations, AbbVie was ready to upgrade their NovaTech D/3 System in 2016.

Control Station has announced the latest release of its D/3® Loop Optimizer product – a highly intuitive PID modeling and tuning software solution that integrates seamlessly with the NovaTech D/3 DCS. New capabilities within the D/3 Loop Optimizer include advanced statistics and the ability to accurately model and tune controllers from all major OEMs.

NovaTech, LLC has announced the latest release of its distributed control system software, D/3® Version 15 (D3v15). This release adds features that focus on modernizing configuration, improving operator interfaces, and facilitating reporting.

FlexBatch integrates recipe management and the automation layer so operators can quickly and easily develop, scale up, modify and schedule batch manufacturing recipes for products ranging from beer to chocolate to specialty chemicals and more. FlexBatch delivers shorter time to first batch, reduced changeover times, increased throughput and production yield. New and existing products are brought to market faster and at lower cost, providing a strategic and financial advantage. Production staff can execute library procedures to overcome process upsets. All of which means a more nimble, responsive, and profitable process.

The latest release of the D/3 Distributed Control System includes new configuration tools that make the system easier for new and existing users. The webinar covers building tags with MDL Builder, writing automation code with D3Edit, web-accessible History and Reports, features to facilitate migration to High-Performance HMI, and OSIsoft PI integration.

This video introduces the D/3, the Distributed Control System trusted by many Fortune 100 companies to keep their global operations’ continuous and batch processes running smoothly and efficiently. Part one reviews the system architecture and configuration tools.

The NovaTech (http://www.novatechweb.com) D/3 Control System is used as a Gas Pipeline SCADA master by ZEBRA Gasnetwerks in the Netherlands. The D/3 incorporates data from pipeline and substation PLCs to provide real-time control and visualization at the control center, and remotely view an iPad using 3G.